Ghana’s recycled glass beads are well-known around the world and their making dates back many centuries.
Broadly, there are three types of glass bead (although, each time I get a new order in I notice something new – exciting!) derived mainly from how they get their colours.
1. Translucent Glass Beads:
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- Frosty white translucent beads will have come from clear bottles which abound
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- tranluscent glass beads take their colour from the recycled glass material
They take their colour from the bottle or other glass material used. Sometimes though, when the desired colours aren’t available in the usual way, the craftsmen will grind down imported glass beads to achieve what they really want.
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- Harder to obtain colours come from imported seed beads
In the glass bead-making industry the petrol blue and pink beads above are known as “packet beads”, based the kind of packaging the raw material comes in.
2. Powder Glass Beads:
Powder glass beads are opaque and coloured by the addtion of ceramic colourants to ground glass powder before being fired in moulds. They derive their name from the fact that the used glass items are ground into a powder before being used.
This type of bead can be one plain colour or multiple colours.
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- plain coloured powder glass beads
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- multi-colours powder glass beads
The design of powdered glass beads is incorporated prior to firing by adding different colour glass powder in a vertical mould. It can be simple or complex patterns.
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- More complex powder glass patterns
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- hand-painted king beads
3. Painted Glass Beads
Painted glass bead are made in the same way as the powder ones, but in addition, are hand-painted after they have cooled and then re-fired to fix the colour. (see hand-painted king beads above)
You will find they have a textured surface because of the designs on them.
Below are beads ready to be hand-painted:
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- ready to be painted
Variations of the three beads types are made and I will explore those in my next article.
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